This invention relates to ruminant feed supplements having nutritional, therapeutic or prophylactic properties and to a method of producing such supplements. In one aspect the invention relates to a method for treating protein-aldehyde gels to induce syneresis and thus allow removal of water entrained within the gel prior to use of the gel or further processing of the gel.
Milk, meat and meat byproducts of ruminants, such as cows and sheep, constitute a large portion of the human diet. Such products normally contain hydrogenated fat, e.g., saturated fat, which has been medically detrimental to a humans' health. Many feed supplements have been proposed for ruminants so that the milk, meat, and meat byproducts of said ruminants would contain polyunsaturated fat rather than the saturated fat. However, in attempting to devise such a feed supplement problems have been encountered due to the complex digestive system of the ruminant animal. For instance, the ruminant animal has a multi-gastric system with a first stomach called a rumen wherein bacteria known as microflora are present. These bacteria have the ability to break down protein and hydrogenate unsaturated lipids. Thus, a significant portion of the unsaturated lipids contained in ruminant feed are hydrogenated in the rumen by the microflora and assimulated by the animal as saturated fat. Further, problems have been encountered in that the rumen apparently has a low tolerance to feeds containing high concentrations of saturated or unsaturated lipids. This low tolerance produces severe gastric process imbalance when feeds containing high concentrations of lipids are ingested. This imbalance can cause the lipid material to be regurgitated or excreted in essentially its undigested form. Feeding high concentrations of lipids, therefore, resulted in a loss of appetite and the animals becoming infirm. It has also been demonstrated that the lipids per se are assimilated more efficiently when rumen by-pass is achieved, in so far as the lipids are not partially utilized for support of the bio-system in the rumen.
Recently, a ruminant feed supplement has been developed, which, upon ingestion by a ruminant, is not susceptible to breakdown in the rumen but is susceptible to breakdown in the abomasum and lower gut. Upon assimilation of the feed supplement the polyunsaturated fat content of the milk and carcass is significantly increased. This feed supplement is made by contacting an oilseed, containing lipids naturally dispersed within a proteinaceous material, with ammonia in order to activate the proteinaceous material. Thereafter, the ammoniated proteinaceous material is reacted with an aldehyde to form an ammoniated protein-aldehyde complex. The resulting feed supplement and process for producing same are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,310, entitled "Ruminant Feed Supplement Comprising An Ammoniated Protein-Aldehyde Complex".
In addition, a process has been developed to encapsulate lipids in a protective protein-aldehyde complex coating. The protein-aldehyde complex feed supplement is not susceptible to breakdown in the rumen but is susceptible to breakdown in the abomasum and lower gut. Basically, the process for producing the protein-aldehyde complex feed supplement consists of finely dividing a lipid material into discreet particles or globules and forming an aqueous emulsion containing the finely divided lipid material and a proteinaceous material. The aqueous emulsion can then be reacted with an aldehyde so that the lipid particles are encapsulated in a protein-aldehyde complex. The emulsion can be spray dried or otherwise processed prior to the aldehyde addition or thereafter to form a coated particulate solid.
The disadvantages of the above process are cost and preparation time. For instance, when a solid feed is desired the emulsion must be dried. Large amounts of energy are required to dehydrate and dry the emulsion, such cost reflecting in the overall cost of the product. Therefore, new methods for preparing ruminant feed supplements are being investigated, especially processes for preparing such feed supplement employing emulsification techniques. However, the process developed must allow one to substantially reduce process cost and preparation time without affecting the desired characteristics of the feed supplement.